Steve's Birthday/Father's Day Week

Steve is very lucky and gets his Birthday and Father's Day in the same week! His Birthday was a bit boring because he had to work and go to a staff meeting but we went to The Coffee Club for dinner and had a Krispy Kreme birthday cake.

Here are the girls putting the cake together. Apparently it is a very zen experience.

He was psyched (ha!) that the last season of Psych also includes the musical episode - which it doesn't in the US. We are now watching this series from the beginning to end. Lucky I like it too! Amita and Lizzie got him some Superman gear and I also got him tickets a long time ago to see  'Singing in the Rain' (and we are seated in the splash zone). 

Luckily I could make Father's Day a bit more special for him. Steve had said a few times that he'd like to go visit Augathella. It is a little town out in West QLD and his Grandfather's family come from there. I decided to take us all on a weekend camping road trip out there. I know it sounds like a crazy idea but we loved it and the girls did so well with all the driving (5 hours on both days).

Making a stop in Roma and posing with a cow in the info centre. Roma is known for it's cattle saleyards. I got lots of brochures for places we'd like to go camping at next! 

We followed a sign pointing to a historical site along the way. We have no idea what or where the historical site is but we found a bunch of emus on the way (fun fact: a group of emus is called a mob). They decided to cross the road in front of us as we were driving back to the highway. It was definitely worth the detour. 

Steve loved this sign! He likes to think it means 'beware of cows that eat cars!' 100m after we saw the sign we came across a herd of cows crossing the road. 

Here is Amita being super helpful in the tent while Lizzie sets up her bed. We love our new instant up tent! There is plenty of room and it takes less than 5 minutes for us to put it up and take it down. We could probably do it in 1 minute if we wanted to. 

 There are 2 options for eating out in Augathella - the Pub and the BP roadhouse. We went to the BP and the girls got a can of soft drink each with their dinner. Amita's friend at school collects cans to recycle so she insisted on getting a can of drink, and anything Amita does, Lizzie has to do too. It only took 30 seconds for them to go crazy.

And what does any sane parent do after giving their kid red fizzy drink? Give them Bubble-o-bills to eat for dessert of course! Luckily they were tired and went to sleep easily. Steve and I however did not (more on that at the bottom).

 We had a BBQ Father's Day breakfast at the park. Lizzie got Steve a box of Favourites, Amita got him a pen, magnet and rocky road. I had given him a hammock earlier on that was at home. 

We then went to find interesting things in town to take pictures of. Here a couple of them. My apologies that the first one is the toilet block. I thought it was funny that it was called a 'Public Convenience.'

The Big Meat-Ant! 

We think (based on directions) that this is the old family home. It does not look like anyone lives there now. 

This is the Police Station. We hear it is a one man operation. We also went to the cemetery and took photos of Steve's ancestor's gravestones. 

Ready for the trip back home. If Steve and I look tired, it is because we are! Apparently for a town of 500 (of whom you see no-one during the day) they love to party hard on a Saturday night. The Pub had a DJ going till 3am. The Pub is on the other side of town to where we camped but the music was crystal clear. After the music died down Lizzie decided to wake up and announced that the Sun was up now so she can get up - it was about 4:30am. Steve generously shared his blankets with her to get her back to sleep. From 5:00am, Amita was snoring like a freight train! We managed to get a few hours of sleep in between all of those distractions and I'm sure we'll sleep well tonight.  

Lizzie's Concert

I got myself a ukulele and had been practicing a few songs this morning. Lizzie did some practice too and wanted to show you her song!

Ekka 2016

I took a weekend trip with the girls to the coast so that we could go to the Ekka with Nan this year. Steve had to stay for work so he got a relaxing weekend to himself (only a little bit jealous!).

The girls did very well and were patient as Nan and I looked at all of the boring things first (cakes, quilts, flower displays, food stalls). Here's some of the more fun things they got up to.

There was a free flower crown stall and the girls got to pick out the flowers they wanted. Here they are under the love tree with their new crowns. 

They went digging for vegetables and found lots of potatoes, carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes. 

Their favourite cake was 'The Very Cranky Bear' one and they did their best cranky faces. I know for a fact that Lizzie can do a much better cranky face than that. 

We found a baby goat at the animal nursery. Amita spotted one of the sheep pooping and was amazed and disgusted. she said it looked like chocolate balls.

Lizzie and Amita holding a little chicken. Lizzie's started to fall asleep in her hands, whereas Amita's was alert the whole time as she kept picking it up to check out its feet. 

Amita on the big slide. She also had a go at an angry birds game where she used a giant slingshot to try to knock down some pigs. She won a toy snake for her efforts. Lizzie had a go at the clowns and won a jigsaw puzzle. They were both super excited about their prizes. 

Here's the comedy acrobat show we saw. Just after this shot they all leaned forward to fall and just before hitting the ground, rolled out. Lizzie was saying every 5 seconds, 'they're so funnnnny!'

Watching the night time show and eating some dinner. We had been to the showbag pavillion prior to this and Amita picked out the Zootopia bag and Lizzie picked out a giant Shopkins cookie toy. That cookie got dropped on the ground a lot before we left.

She could barely hold onto it properly!

Selfie time. 

Lizzie and Nan. I brought a beanie with ear flaps for Lizzie so that she would be OK with the loud noises but she still kept her hands over her ears for the whole cars and fireworks show. She loved it though! This shot reminds me of one Nan and Amita took last time we were at the Ekka together.

Here it is! 

Sports Day and other Funtivities

Amita had her sports day last week and she's a very fast runner considering how small she is! She came 3rd in her races though they didn't keep track of it for the Preps. Amita had such a good time that when I went to take her home early at 2pm she started crying because she didn't want to leave school. Amita says: it was very good. I had some fun playing new running games and I loved playing ball games. 

Lizzie was a good sport sitting with me and managed to keep herself occupied for 2 + hours.

Here's the girls having fun with the bubble machine. 

A cat lives down the street from us and comes to visit sometimes. Lizzie loves it! She really wants a cat but of course we can't have pets in a rental so this is a great alternative. I don't have to worry about costs or mess and Lizzie gets to pat a cat every so often. 

Lizzie's Birthday

Lizzie is 3! According to her she is now a 'big girl.'

Here is her birthday Interview 

1. What is your favourite colour? Blue

2. What are your favourite toys? Picnic Set, her new Beanie Boo 'Squeaker,' Shopkins, Batgirl Barbie and play-dough.

3. What clothes do you love to wear? Dress-ups: princess, pirate, Supergirl, doctor, Elsa, Emma wiggle - she loves them all!

4. What do you like to do outside? Riding her scooter and playing with bubbles.

5. What do you like to do inside? Wake everyone up and colour-in

6. What songs do you love? Let it Go from Frozen, Once there Was a Snowman and I am a Child of God (she calls this one Jesus Christ God)

7. What are your favourite foods? Weet-bix, hot chocolate, chips, cookies and watermelon

8. Who are your best friends? Amita, Whitney & David (from church) and my cousins.

9.  What do you love to do with your family? Drawing and making a mess.

10. What do you want to do when you grow up? Go to the potty!

11. What are your favourite books? Cowboy Baby, Reading Eggs, Inside Out, Zootopia and Frozen

12. What makes you happy? Eating!

13. What makes you sad? When Daddy is sad. 

14. Where are your favourite places to go? On a picnic

15. What are your favourite tv shows/movies? Lego Batman, Snoopy and Curious George.

16. What is your favourite animal? Cows (she gets very excited seeing them on our way to church), Horses and Cats (there's a cat from down the road that comes to visit us now because she loves it so much).

17. Who is your favourite scripture person/story? Nephi

18. What is your favourite ice-cream flavour? Chocolate

19. Who is your hero? Mmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeee

20. What do you like about Mum? She says prayers. 

21. What do you like about Dad? I like reading books with Dad.

22. What do you like about Amita? She plays with me. 

Lizzie's Birthday Breakfast was a very easy croissant and Up & Go. Amita made her the crown for her birthday so that she could be the 'Queen' for the day. 

 She really wanted a piano cake - I think because of how much chocolate is on it!

She was so excited to get an Emma costume and paints from Gramps, Gramsi, Aunty Tahnee and Uncle Michael.

Amita's Time at the QLD Ballet Camp

By Amita Wroe

I got go to Ballet camp last week. It went for 4 days. I had so much fun. I really love my teachers helping me learn new dances. I got to do some crafting. I made a costume, a mask and a cardboard box stage. We learnt ballet, contemporary and Jazz dance styles. 
When I was at ballet camp I started to get a bit sad because I missed my family but I tried to do stuff that made me happy (she got picked up every day at 3pm so it was just like school). My favourite part of dance camp is that we did our ballet dance to a song from Madagascar 3 - Non je ne regrette rien.

On my last day of camp, there were Mum and Dads, and Grandparents and Brothers and Sisters who had come to watch us dance. Here are some photos that Mum took. (Amita was on the opposite side of the stage that I was sitting at so I couldn't get too many photos without another kid's head or legs in the way!)

Amita Update

Amita has been practicing riding her bike without training wheels and she has done brilliantly! 

Amita has been a really awesome big sister lately. She always tries to make Lizzie happy (even when Lizzie doesn't want to be happy). 

Amita has been getting into face painting. She loves trying to paint Lizzie's face and even draws up a plan first. She usually only gets a little bit done before Lizzie gets bored. This is one of her creations that she calls 'Snowflake Sparkle.' The blue bit on her cheek is a snowflake. 

Amita did this painting to send to her Gramps. She told me it is called 'Harry Potter.' I asked what about this painting makes it Harry Potter? Where is he? 

Amita replied (a bit exasperated), "he's in the blue bit wearing an invisibility cloak Mum!"

Touche Amita ... Touche.